The luxury cruise service from Kolkata to Dhaka and Kolkata to Mayapur is all set to start.
The Kolkata-Dhaka tour is expected to start in early part of 2017. The Kolkata-Mayapur tour will probably start after the Durga Puja, where The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), is partnering with a private luxury cruise company.
“It will be a 45-seat catamaran ship which would reach Mayapur via Ganga. The ship will also return from Mayapur,” said Sushila Ramamurthi, executive director of Vivada Cruises, the company which has arranged the trip.
Each person has to pay Rs 3,000 for the reaching and returning back to Kolkata from Mayapur. But the single journey in both the stretch would cost Rs 1,500. “It will surely be an exciting tour,” said Ramamurthi.
However, the governments of India and Bangladesh are in discussion to finalise the luxury cruise service from Kolkata to Dhaka for tourists.
The two countries have a protocol for just the movement of cargo ships across the border. But initiatives have been taken to sign a new protocol which would allow cruise ships carrying tourists across the border.
The Indian part would be checked by the Inland Waterways Authority of India and Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation will look after it in Bangladesh.
The travellers can take a voyage to Dhaka from Kolkata either by bus, train or flights. But the Cargo ships carrying fly ash and coal also move between the two countries. There is no such cruise movement which could pass the passengers from this country to Bangladesh.